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Pelham student-artists draw top nod at event

By John Collins, jcollins@lowellsun.com

Updated:
01/28/2014 12:05:43 AM EST

PELHAM -- When it comes to athletics, Pelham High School competes as a Division III school. But in the field of artistic endeavor, Python art students have again created a league of their own, according to the judging panel of the 2013-14 Scholastic Art Awards of New Hampshire.

Under the tutelage of PHS art teachers Mike Norton and Casey Locke, 16 students, from grades 7 through 12, earned a combined 17 gold-key awards, eight silver keys and six honorable mentions from the SAANH judges.

Those gold-key winners include three of the top nine most prestigious, "best-in-show" awards given by the state's judges.

Pelham Memorial School eighth-grader Brenton Morgenstern's self-portrait earned one of the five best-in-show "American Vision Awards" at the 2014 New Hampshire Scholastic Art Show.

No other New Hampshire school -- of any size -- could boast of such an impressive showing this year, said Norton, who is in his 10th year teaching in Pelham.

"We definitely give the big schools a run for their money. And it makes us feel good that we're doing something right down there," said Norton, referring to the expansive art classroom he shares with Locke that he calls a "nontraditional, chaotic classroom setup" that fosters students' creativity.

"We're a little unorthodox, and it's kind of like a war zone sometimes, but it is a creative atmosphere, and the kids like it and take advantage of it," he added.

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Pelham's top award-winning submissions created in that classroom this season include senior Lauren Austin's gold-key-winning ceramics portfolio, and senior Natasha Cote's mixed-media portfolio -- two of only four portfolios chosen by the judges to receive "significant" scholarship amounts, Norton said.

At the very top of the prestige pyramid of the state's Scholastic Awards Show this year hangs Pelham High junior Brenton Morgenstern's deliberately unfinished self-portrait, titled "Self Completion," which the judges gave its best-in-show "American Visions Award," making it the top-rated painting in the show.

Pelham High student Amanda Grinley won a gold-key award at the New Hampshire Scholastic Art Show for this drawing, "Masculine Face Study."

The first time was a charm for Morgenstern, whose smashingly successful self-portrait was his first-ever submission to the state award program, according to Locke, who had to put some pressure on his student to get the panting in on time.

According to Locke, an eighth-year teacher in Pelham, students must do a self-portrait that also involves a photo shoot.

"They take those photos and do Photoshop, or whatever," Locke said. "Brenton is a very artsy, thoughtful, cool kid, and he went a step further by incorporating paint on his face, and a feather on his head, and working with oils."

Generally, high-school art classes avoid using oil paints because of the expense and cleanup difficulties, "but Brenton has his own set, because he's really into art," Locke said.

Pelham High student Letendre earned a gold-key award in the 2014 New Hampshire Scholastic Art Show for this self-portrait.

"As you look at his painting, there are parts of his original sketch and grid that come through, and it seems like it might not be complete yet. But Brenton decided he had communicated what he wanted to communicate and that he was done enough for the piece to be finished. It was his reservation that created something different and special," Locke added.

Like Pelham High student Jill Fisher, who won one of the Scholastic Art Awards of New Hampshire's top five American Visions Awards last year, Morgenstern will learn sometime in March from a national judging panel about whether "Self Completion" will be shown at Carnegie Hall in New York City at the National Scholastic Art Awards show in June.

This self-portrait by Pelham High junior Amanda Grinley, won a gold-key award at the New Hampshire Scholastic Art Show.

Several other Pelham High students also won gold and silver keys and honorable mentions at the state awards show for the self-portraits they created in Locke's class, including: gold-key winners Amanda Grinley, Allison Hoey, Olivia Letendre, Sophia Rosselli and Heather Snide; silver-key winners Montana Darisse, Jordyn Isabelle and Margherita Tibaldo; and honorable-mention winner Alison Blanchard.

"They did an excellent job," said Norton, who previously taught art in Reno, where he also had his students compete in Nevada's annual scholastic awards show. "I've been here 10 years now, and it is gratifying to be told by the judges that 'Pelham was not even a blip' at the state awards before then.

Allison Hoey of Pelham received two of Pelham High School's 17 gold-key awards at the 2014 New Hampshire Scholastic Art Show, including one for this self-portrait.

"It's great publicity for the students and the school and a great opportunity for the students to have one of their pieces go national and get scholarships," he added.

Among other local schools eligible to submit to the New Hampshire awards program, Bishop Guertin had students winning two gold keys, three silver keys, and six honorable mentions. Alvirne and Nashua high schools did not submit entries to the show.

More than 1,800 works of art and 100 portfolios were submitted for adjudication in the 2014 Scholastic Art Awards Program of New Hampshire, a statewide network of art educators, artists and arts institutions who are members of the New Hampshire Art Educators' Association and strive "to foster creative expression and artistic achievement" in all students, grades 7 through 12.

All of the winning art is on display in the first- and second-floor lobbies of the Spaulding Arts Center building on the campus of Pinkerton Academy in Derry. The exhibit is open to the public weekdays, through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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